What did you do in the shop today?

[George N. M.]

The way folk in Colorado who want unpasteurized milk get around the ban on the sale of the product is that they buy a share in a cow at the dairy.  That way, they are getting their own milk as an owner of the animal and are only paying a processing and handling fee for the milk.  So far, no legal challenges that I know of.

The flavor of honey is very dependent on what flowers are being processed.  Most commercial honey is blended from a lot of sources.  There are still a few "artisanal" apiaries around that process their own honey and have a primary source.  Orange blossom honey from Florida is very good.  A person could dig around on the internet for places that sell single flower honey.

I agree about apples.  Most of the commercial varieties are ones that are new.  I can't recall the last time I saw Jonathan apples in the grocery store.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Today I spent most of the day a BOA hammer in! It was a blast! 

I finally got to meet Randy an Debi in person!

as well as got to meet some new faces from around northwest Arkansas, 

got lots of good tips and got to watch some of their work! 

I brought out the tiny Buffalo pancake forge an started on another rolled rose, 

I didn’t get a chance to get some pointers on leaves because the rose was taking me so long

but I joined the club today so hopefully I’ll be able to get some help at a future meeting!

[Les L]

8 hours ago, Chimaera said:

Les- lovely job on that hawk! That curly maple is stunning!

Thanks, I finally found some stain to get the results I was looking for, after trying most of the ideas that members here had suggested after my first try. I used ted mahogany, it doesn’t have the same “pop” as aqua fortis, but is much more user friendly. 

[JHCC]

A few small projects. First, handled a two-peen texturing hammer I picked up at Quad-State:

Made some more chasing & repoussé tools (from some bits of mystery stainless that appears to be air-hardening, so I won’t be doing any more heat treatment):

And made a bowl from a circular saw blade I picked up at the ReStore:

I like the edge detail, but I messed up welding the arbor hole closed. I will have to give some thought what to do with this. 

Oh, and welded some brackets onto the stock rack for the crate that holds my supply of, well…

[Chimaera]

Well John, maybe it’s bad perspective, but it looks like that box will last you as long as my box lasted me.

[Chelonian]

Recently I designed and 3D printed an air gate and adapter for an electric blower. It has worked well so far.

[JHCC]

There’s a lot of steel in there, mostly S7. Had to unload the box to lift it onto the brackets. 

[Frosty]

12 hours ago, Chelonian said:

Recently I designed and 3D printed an air gate and adapter for an electric blower. It has worked well so far.

Looks good.

Frosty The Lucky.

[BillyBones]

George, the orchards we used to have all kept bee's so a lot of the honey here was apple blossom. My favorite though is wild flower. It has a subtle and not overpowering flavor. Which may change from state to state becuase i am sure that they have different flowers growing in Cali than Ohio.

Macintosh, or what we call farmers apples here is my favorite apple. Kind of a sour apple and not overly sweet like most in the grocery store are. Being they are grown here in Ohio and that state up north they can be found when in season pretty commonly. And of course the farmers markets. 

So things started thawing out some. Went out to the shop yesterday and noticed a huge wet spot on the floor, not near the huge hole in the roof. The water in my slack tank of course froze. The ice managed to push the bottom out of my barrel. So i got to empty it. 

Cant wait to see what all i have dropped into it. I know there is a punch in there somewhere i dropped a couple days before it froze. 

[bluerooster]

On 2/12/2022 at 2:50 PM, George N. M. said:

 

The flavor of honey is very dependent on what flowers are being processed.  Most commercial honey is blended from a lot of sources.  There are still a few "artisanal" apiaries around that process their own honey and have a primary source.  Orange blossom honey from Florida is very good.  A person could dig around on the internet for places that sell single flower honey.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Agreed as to the honey. Alfalfa is light, and  pretty good, but Sourgum is dark and has a pretty strong flavor. Blackberry is sweet, but weak in flavor.  We just let the bees harvest what's in season at the time. It's not unusual for honey vary from frame to frame in the same super. Or even have different types in the same frame.

[arkie]

When we lived in TX, one of my favorite honeys was mesquite honey.  Unique and usually found in the Hill Country and W. TX.  We could only get it for about 2-3 weeks in the spring because it sold out so fast from the beekeepers who processed it.  Friends would buy up several quarts and save them for us when we couldn't get to the Hill Country,.

[BsnNFrnt]

Prepped some rail steel for annealing. Any one know a better way to cut these down? It felt like a wasted a lot of material last time I used the torch. 

[Frosty]

I use my horizontal vertical metal bandsaw. You can cut rail in lengths by scoring with a cold chisel and snapping with a sledge hammer. I've seen videos of guys dropping on another rail or a rock.

It's supposed to be pretty precise but I've never done it myself. . . On purpose, I have snapped rail a time or two proving it wouldn't do what I wanted.

Frosty The Lucky.

[BillyBones]

Today i got a request for something i had never done before. An ashtray. Many things i have had requested but this is a first. so i made a prototype just to figure out the process. 

Need to work on the "spout" thingy's. 

Also got the ax with the 5 layers Damascus bit etched. The other one is going to be one of theme walking stick ax things that i can not remember the name of. made from a RR spike and actually hardened pretty decent. 

 

[JHCC]

Had a couple of students over, one working on a knife and the other making S-hooks. 

Before they arrived, I played around with an Edgar Brandt-style forged rose:

Needs a bit of practice, but I like the idea. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

2 hours ago, BillyBones said:

walking stick ax

I believe the name you are looking for is a Fokos, used mainly in the Balkans. The first I had heard of them was from my grandfather who immigrated from Slovenia in the early 1900s. Also called a shepherds walking stick. My version of one from a RR spike.

 

[Anachronist58]

Have no idea of what precedes my post, save a mention of a walking stick axe?  And some nice looking hafted iron.  Hope to get a look.

Well, then I have run short of Gozintas, need a dozen, here go the first three.  This will get my receiver hitch post vise back on line.  Walking 30 feet up and down a hill can be rewarding, doing it for no good purpose can be more than tedious.

These are pretty much ready for the weld.

Robert Taylor

[Rojo Pedro]

I made a pipe wrench knife, a center punch made from a 1/2” coil spring and couple of unfinished scribes from a 1/4” spring.

the center punch may be my best heat treat ever and I set the spring aside because it was so successful.

real happy with the knife. I have about 4 hours total and I have come a long way with my little 1”x30” belt grinder. Thanks for looking

[Goods]

I got part of my wife’s Valentine’s Day gift covered today. Still have to finish the knife for her as well, but I’m not sure when that will happen.

Keep it fun,

David

[Les L]

Billy, your doing some great work 

Rojo, I like the knife, did it harden and take a good edge 

Goods, very nice rose, I’m sure she will be happy 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

14 hours ago, JHCC said:

I played around with an Edgar Brandt-style forged rose:

I like the rose JHCC, what size stock did you use?

[JHCC]

Something random off the rack. Maybe 9" of 1/2" round?

In retrospect, it would have looked good with some brass brush work on the highlights. Oh, well; next time.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Did you use a fuller for the flat spots?

[JHCC]

12 hours ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

believe the name you are looking for is a Fokos, used mainly in the Balkans.

The Wikipedia article on the "Shepherd's axe" contains the following variety of names:

• Hungarian: fokos
• Czech, Slovak, and Rusyn: valaška, lit. "Romanian" (NB: Rusyn uses Cyrillic letters, so валашка)
• Polish (depending on the region): ciupaga, rąbanica, obuszek, cekanka, wataha, wataszka, the latter two from Romanian vătaf ("master shepherd")
• Romanian: baltag, secure
• Ukrainian: бартка (bartka), топірець, (topirets').

A google image search for "fokos walking stick" (without quotes) reveals quite an interesting variety of patterns, especially as the item in question lost its practical value as a working tool.

14 minutes ago, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

Did you use a fuller for the flat spots?

They're actually hollow, not flat. I worked them over the horn with the heel of a rounding hammer, but they ended up getting somewhat mashed when I bent the fullered bar into a spiral. I'm thinking about making a ball-shaped fuller to use under the treadle hammer and modifying the order of operations to minimize their distortion.

[ThomasPowers]

Saturday: scrapyard visit and then taught the intro "Make an S hook" class to a fellow older than I am.  He got his S hook done and then gave me a cast iron coal forge with working hand crank blower!  The forge needs a bit of work so I will be passing it on at the next NMABA meeting I hope to a young person just starting out who will probably have it working in 1 Saturday afternoon----needs the T for Air and Ash under the table.

Sunday went to my Grandson's 13th birthday party.  I asked and my Daughter figured out that there will never be a time when all 4 of my grandsons are teenagers at the same time!  (The oldest will be 22 when the youngest turns 13...)  They are talking about going on a hike down near me; it's an area for Winter hiking as in the summer the buzztails are rife!